Urinary incontinence, the loss of bladder control, is a very common condition in elderly patients. The severity of urinary incontinence ranges from occasionally leaking urine to having an uncontrollable urge to urinate before reaching a toilet in time. Of the approximately 1.7 million patients in convalescent hospitals and nursing homes in the United States at the present time, half of such patients are deemed to be incontinent.
The present routine in most nursing homes in the United States is to check all patients every two hours around the clock for urinary leakage and to change a patient to a dry undergarment when wetness is discovered. Although this method of treatment of urinary incontinence helps to maintain the dryness of undergarments of patients, patients may be unnecessarily disturbed when they are dry and, conversely, may become wet again shortly after being changed. In the latter case, the patient would remain in a wet condition for as much as two hours.
Another frequently encountered problem in nursing homes is the development of a decubitus ulcer, also known as a pressure ulcer, a pressure sore, or a bed sore. The development of decubitus ulcers is due to the infrequent turning or change of position in bed by elderly patients. Rounds commonly made every two hours by caregiver to assure timely turning of a patient may be insufficient for noting patient movement. The situation is especially prevalent in lean or cachectic subjects who are especially liable for developing decubitus ulcers. It should also be noted that decubitus ulcers develop through pressure, shearing, and moisture, the latter commonly deriving from incontinence.
In the past, many systems of detecting incontinence and other patient conditions have been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,106,001, 5,266,928, 5,469,145, 6,603,403, 7,394,391, 7,477,156, and 8,299,317 disclose employing one or more conductive elements which are in direct contact with moisture expelled by a patient to produce an electrical signal which triggers an alarm indicating the presence of urinary moisture.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,772,568 shows an incontinence detection system which employs a disposable sensor that is attached to a diaper-like assembly worn around the waist of the of the patient.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,573,837, 7,053,781, and United States Patent Publication 2012/0268278 describe incontinence monitoring systems that employ a metallic element sensor in combination with adhesive and layered pads that lie between the metallic sensors and the skin of the patient.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,111,165 and 8,416,088 show a patient sensor system that utilizes an incontinence or moisture detector in direct contact with the skin of the patient in combination with a pressure sensor to detect contact of the patient's skin with a support.
An incontinence detector having reusable elements in combination with a tilt sensor to avoid the development of decubitus ulcers would be a notable advance in the medical arts.